ONLY a small minority of pensioners paying for their own care will live long enough to benefit from the new cost of care cap, according to new research.

As many as 90 percent of elderly people in the UK will not benefit from the care costs cap

As many as 90 per cent of those who go into a residential home will die before they reach the cap limit of £72,000 set to be introduced in April 2016.

The warning comes in analysis by the GMB, the union for care staff, which found only a one in 10 chance that an elderly resident in a care home in England would reach the limit.

This is because the £72,000 cap does not include ‘top-up fees’, which is the difference in the amount the State pays and the care home bill, and “hotel costs” of around £230 per week.

This is the amount residents have to contribute toward the cost of accommodation and food.

This is a betrayal of hundreds of thousands of citizens who contributed to this country

Justin Bowden

Based on current trends, when the new system comes into force local authorities will be paying on average £522 a week in England for a residential-care bed.

So after paying the £230 per week the balance (not including any ‘top-up fees’) counting towards the cap will be £292 per week on average in England.

It would take four years and nine months for an average resident in England to reach the cap and they can expect to spend around twice the official level of the cap to get to that point.

But figures from private health insurer BUPA show the average length of stay in a care home is 2.3 years.

The longest 25 per cent of stayers are there for around 3.3 years and the longest 10 per cent for 5.8 years.

Justin Bowden, GMB National Officer, said “The complete inadequacy of the government’s cap on eligible care fees is laid bare for all to see.

“This is a betrayal of hundreds of thousands of citizens who contributed to this country all their working lives and were promised a cradle to grave system of care would be there if they needed it, free at the point of use.

“Instead they are thrown into a lottery whose outcome depends on whether or not they are one from twenty from each age group who will need to go into a care home and if so how long they will be there.

“At their most vulnerable and needy, they are expected to empty their hard earned savings or sell their houses long before reaching the cap.

“The shocking reality is that nearly 90 per cent of them will die before they reach the cap.

“We need to move away from this mess of means-testing and capping. The Westminster parties should make manifesto pledges to integrate elderly care with the health service and fund both from general taxation. This would patently be a fairer system.”

A recommendation that the cap should be set at £35,000 by the Commission on Funding of Care and Support chaired by Andrew Dilnot was dismissed after the Chancellor said the country could not afford it.

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Yesterday a senior government minister pledged that nursing home owners who offer “shocking standards” of care will be rooted out and prosecuted.

Norman Lamb, the health minister, said there must be “no hiding place” for care homes that fail to treat residents with kindness and respect.

Mr Lamb said that from April next year the Government was introducing “fundamental standards” with which the directors of companies that provide care must comply — or face prosecution.

He highlighted Merok Park home in Banstead, Surrey, which was closed earlier this month after inspectors found distressed residents “crying out for help”.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC), the regulator, will have greater powers over failing services which would ensure the prosecution of directors for abuse and the passing of a ‘fit and proper person test’ before being allowed to work in the sector.